Features

Part of a rotating headline slot with Less Than Jake and their first UK appearance alongside them, ska punk survivors Reel Big Fish are set to close the Leeds date of the Slam Dunk Festival in style and finese. With a greatest hits compilation release, entitled ‘A Best Of Us For The Rest Of Us’, now in stores, it’s fairly easy to get yourself ready for what will be one of the most entertaining headliners the festival has had thus far. We got in touch with frontman Aaron Barrett to see if himself and the band are just as excited about it:

Despite constantly being compared to label mates Paramore due to both bands having a female lead vocalist, VersaEmerge opt for a far more theatrical and alternative rock style of music than their peers. Steadily climbing the popularity ladder over here in the UK with their first headline tour on these shores, along with an upcoming set at Slam Dunk Festival, we got in touch with the band to talk about their shows and how they feel about their soon to come festival appearance:

Considering their slightly low status of popularity over here in the UK, you’d be surprised to hear that A Loss For Words have been going strong for over a decade now, complete with a discography of multiple studio albums, and most recently even a motown tribute record, ‘Motown Classics’. With a new full-length on the way along with an appearance at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival weekend, we caught up with frontman Matty Arsenault to see how psyched he is about playing it:

Whilst on their first ever visit over to the UK supporting Mayday Parade, New York’s We Are The In Crowd are ready to make a name for themselves on British shores with an appearance at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival weekend. Their exchanging female and male viewpoint lyrics make for a slightly different class of their pop-punk/pop-rock sound, and should help set them aside from the competition. We had a chat with vocalist Tay Jardine to see how they feel about coming to the UK for the first time:

Following a UK tour supporting VersaEmerge, Southampton’s Not Advised are set to perform on the Atticus stage at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival. Their debut EP ‘After The Fight We Won’ has helped to establish the band securely in the underground pop-punk scene of the UK, and with work beginning on their first full-length soon after the festival is over, it seems the quintet are going to make a name for themselves very soon. Guitarist Jack Fairbrother was nice enough to give us the lowdown:

After an almost 5 year gap between albums, Hellogoobye finally released their sophomore record ‘Would It Kill You?’ in the UK on March 14th, and though currently their presence isn’t as great as their debut brought them, Hellogoodbye are set to change that. Following a short UK headline stint, the band are scheduled to perform on the Jäger Stage at this year’s Slam Dunk, so we got in touch with frontman Forrest Kline for a little chat about the festival:

Sometimes it’s nice to have a change from the gore, obscure and horror themed designs that a lot of alternative clothing lines go for. Lots of clothing lines go in different directions for designs based on their company name, or just to stand out from the crowd. Alive & Well are one of such brands, and since their set up just last year, the company has slowly but surely been gaining a name for itself.

Going on with our Sick Swag features, we got in touch with founder Connor Fathers to talk about the history of the brand, despite how short that may be at the moment, and to find out what plans he’s got for the line in the foreseeable future. If things keep going the way it has so far, it’s going to be staying alive and well.

At one point they were supporting the now defunct post-hardcore act Finch, and now following the release of their debut studio album, ‘All Our Kings Are Dead’, pop-rock quintet Young Guns have been on fire, and are now set to headline the Big Deal Clothing stage at this year’s Hit The Deck Festival. We got a hold drummer Ben Joliffe and bassist Simon Mitchell to get the lowdown of what to expect:

Despite a lack of touring in the UK since the last few months of 2010, We Are The Ocean have still managed to maintain a pretty strong hype around the release of their upcoming sophomore effort, ‘Go Now And Live’. With the album dropping roughly a week after their performance at this year’s Hit The Deck Festival, we decided to catch up with lead vocalist Dan Brown to talk about it all:

With a superbly received mini-album, ‘The North Stands For Nothing’, and a fastly rising fanbase, Sheffield’s While She Sleeps are becoming one of the strongest buzz bands of the UK in the run up to their debut full-length. With their new single ‘Be(lie)ve’ keeping their fan expectations high, their set at Hit The Deck is only going to strengthen this further. We had a chat with vocalist Lawrence Taylor to get his take on what the festival will bring: